Tuesday, 24 September 2013

Foxriver11: Arsenal welcomes Stoke a la Rambo style

Foxriver11: All eyes were set on the Manchester
derby taking place later inthe evening
but at Islington a few hours before masses gathered to welcome a Stoke side
unlike many that Pulis used to show us was gonna be entertained by gooners who
wanted a bitter sweet revenge for the in-form Ramsey.

Yes, the same Aaron Ramsey who was booed
off the pitch when Shawcross horribly tried to end a career of a budding
talent. But years passed on to that incident and Aaron rose again like a
phoenix rising from the flames giving his all for a team that were trying to
find a balance, a foothold for a position that was always doubted of their
worth by the English media. His mental strength was the thing that Arsene
Wenger grew so fond of speaking to the press about his team overall on a
regular basis. So when the season where he actually began to show his potential
on the pitch started, gooners all over began to anticipate the horrors that
would hold for the Welsh captain when he faced the team that almost ruined him.

Another much speculated player so far
has been the arrival of Mesut Ozil, many have compared his signing to the Ice
Man one of Wenger's classiest signings ever. I had failed to grasp the
intensity of what this meant, but now reading the similarities in their signing
and class, I am beginning to understand the similarities these players have.
Besides being World class players, both came at a time where Arsenal actually
were pretty balanced in the attacking midfield department, but were in deep
crap at both their strikers and defensive positions but the influence that
world class players have on a pretty average team can be phenomenal to say the
least.

Arsenal forced to make a very late
change to the side that beat Marseille mid week Walcott replaced by young
German Gnabry on the right hand side because of an abdominal muscle problem to
the English forward. It wasn't long since Arsenal found their rhythm in the
half before Wilshere was fouled by Charlie Adam disrupting the flow of the game,
but what was surprising was the way Arsenal nicked the 1st goal of the game.
SET PLAY against stoke, Ozil whipped in an attempt on goal which was parried on
to Ramsey who seems can't make any mistake now, 1-0 to the gunners. The
Emirates crowd exploded with promise of more to come. Steven Nzonzi then eluded
BFG to send a shot towards SZCZ. Cameron was the quickest to react and stoke equalized
1-1.

Arsenal stepped up to the pressure after
the goal and were rewarded soon after a Ozil corner led to a Goal by Per
Mertesacker’s looping header, second time lucky for the BFG who had a similar
effort saved moments before 2-1 to the gunners. In the second half, Stoke
dictated the tempo for most of the match, but Gnabry who was rising in stature
in the half tried an audacious long ranger at Begovic, who had saved the effort
comfortably, remained untroubled for the first 20 mins. Thankfully the gunners
scored again against the run of play from another set piece. Set piece against
stoke, this never fails to rub the smile off my face. Anyways it was Wilshere being
fouled for the 9th time in the match that led to the free kick which
was taken by Ozil who had a looped ball for Bacary in the box who made no
mistake and looped it over Begovic, 3-1.

Gibbs and Flamini just grew into the
game and controlled the Stoke moves before it turned to serious threats, clever
interceptions and Koscielny controlling the long balls completely negated the Stoke
threat. Miyaichi, Monreal and Arteta got a run in before the clock ticked down,
Arsenal fans were high and running, singing we are top of the league as the
whistle blew. Its true not many games have been played to celebrate in that
manner, but considering our previous starts to the seasons we deserve all the
cheer and spirit we get from the fans.